Wine-cooling apparatus



June 14, 1938. w. w. WILLIAMSON 0 WINE COOLING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 16, 1955 INVENTOR Wauaun WonmWmmmsou.

Patented June 14, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to apparatus for cooling liquids in circulation and particularly to the cooling of wines during the process of manufacture. The objects of the invention are to provide improved apparatus for the efiicient cooling of one or several kinds of wine simultaneously, either by ordinary cool water circulation or ice water, or both, in two stages: first, through the ordinary cool water stage, and then through the ice water stage. An important feature of my invention is the provision of means whereby the cooling effect of the ice water is used to the utmost before running to waste. Another feature is the special arrangement of pipes and counter-current flow arrangement which eiTects high eificiency; another feature is the extraordinary capacity of the apparatus to handle peak loads. Another feature is the facility afforded by the apparatus for switching over from plain water to ice water and vice versa. Other features and advantages of the apparatus will appear in the following descrip tion and accompanying drawing.

In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a plan sectional view of my improved wine-cooling apparatus, as seen from the line l-l of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional elevation of the apparatus, taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail of one of the pipe headers with pipes projecting therefrom.

In further detail the apparatus as shown in the figures comprises an ice vault or storage room A, and a plurality of cooling troughs B, C, D, E, four being here shown as being usually suflicient to care for the average winery, though any number of cooling troughs may be used.

The ice vault A is constructed of thick well insulated walls I with one or moredoors or removable cover sections 2, 2, for the introduction of a supply of standard cakes of ice 3 with room to take them on end in slightly spaced relation, as shown in Fig. 2, and still leave sufficient head room for a water spray 4 from one or more spray nozzles or sprinklers 5 suitably arranged so as to send a fairly even spray over all of them.

The ice vault A is preferably mounted on a foundation 6 somewhat above the cooling troughs B, C, D, E, which are on an extension of the foundation, all so that the ice water melting from the ice will run by gravity through a drain pipe 1 into the near end of the first cooling trough B.

The cooling troughs are also preferably constructed of heat-insulating walls 8, or thick lumber, so as to prevent the free access of atmospheric heat, especially in hot climates, also similarly covered on top as at 9, though a roof over the apparatus, or its being housed in one of the winery buildings to protect the apparatus from the sun, is of course presumed.

These cooling troughs may be of any length desired, though generally from about 15 to 5 feet will be found sufiicient, and each is preferably of a width and depth to easily accommodate two or more spaced rows of pipes of about a half dozen runs spaced one above the other as shown in Fig. 2, though, of course, there may be more or less pipes, depending on the desired capacity of the installation. These pipes are preferably of tinned copper and are soldered or otherwise secured at opposite ends to suitable vertical headers. The rows of pipes in the cooler troughs are designated [0, H, l2, l3, l4, l5, l6 and ll,and the headers each designated H.

In Fig. 3 one of the headers is shown enlarged, and is shown with clean-out plugs 40 opposite each cooling pipe ll.

Troughs B and C, also D and E, are each separated by a wall l8 which joins the main wall 8 at one end but is spaced from it at the other end to provide an open channel for the cooling water in the trough to pass around from one side of wall 18 to the other so that troughs C, B, form one continuous waterway and likewise troughs D, E. At the ends of the wine-cooling pipes the upper ends of the headers H. are connected by cross-over pipes I9, 20, 2|, 22, 23, 24, in the manner indicated in Fig. 1 so as to make a continuous coil of pipe runs l0, l3, I4 and I1, with an inlet at 25 and an outlet at 26, and likewise a continuous coil of pipe runs II, l2, l5 and 16, with inlet at 21 and outlet at 2B, the first being for one kind of wine, say white wine, as designated on Fig. 1, and the other coil for red wine as also designated, both of which wines are maintained at a constant flow through their respective pipe coils by suitable circulating pumps, not shown. The crossover pipes at the ends .of the pipe runs are preferably connected to their respective headers by flange or other pipe couplings so as to facilitate erection or removal of the pipe runs, and they may be entirely under the cover 9 of the troughs or project above it.

The two sets of troughs are piped both for ordinary cold or well water, or water from a cooling tower, and also for ice water circulation from the ice vault A. To this end a well water supply pipe 29 is provided with branches leading to the closed ends of troughs B and D and each valved as at 30, 3|, while from the closed ends of troughs C and E extend branches of a pipe 32 each valved as at 33, 34, and with pipe 32 extending to the 55 intake side of a motor-driven circulating pump 35 which discharges through a pipe 36 which feeds the ice block sprinkler or sprinklers 5, and is provided with a valve at 39 to control the amount of water to the sprinklers.

The central wall 8' of the cooling troughs is provided with an overflow weir or opening 31 at the closed ends of the two pairs of connecting troughs, and trough E has a final overflow discharge pipe for the waste water at 38.

In addition to the above, there is preferably also provided suitably valved pipes, not shown, for draining the coils if desired, though in regular use the wines are chased out by water and vice versa through suitable valved outlets not shown.

With the arrangement shown and with wine kept flowing through the coils in the direction of the arrows, common well water, or water from a cooling tower, may be introduced into either of the troughs through valves 30 or 3! (valves 33, 34 being closed and pump 35 stopped) for flowing in counter direction to the wine around the ends of walls l8, across weir 3i and out of overflow pipe 38, for pumping back to the cooling tower or other use, or if the temperature of the wine is found not sufficiently lowered, valve 3| may be turned off and valve 34 opened, pump started, and the water of troughs B, C, circulated through the ice vault sprinklers over the ice and return through pipe 1 to trough B. If still more heat extraction is required, as at peak loads, valve 3!] may also be turned off, and valve 33 opened so that the circulation may be entirely of ice water. Thus the system responds to any requirement and uses no ice except when the sprinklers are running and the amount of water circulated over the ice can be definitely limited by valve 39. Any normal melting of the ice in the box, however, runs continually through pipe 1 into the troughs for circulating with the well water so that its value for extraction of heat is fully utilized. Any surplus water will, of course, run out of overflow pipe 38 either when using well water or ice water.

I am of course aware that oounterflow water circulation in coolers and condensers is old in the art, but believe the special arrangement of troughs and piping, and the same in connection with an ice box, to be new and a valuable improvement in the art, and more efiicient than any heretofore used, and I therefore claim:

1. Wine-cooling apparatus comprising an ice storage vault, a water trough with a plurality of wine-cooling pipes therein, a pump and spray nozzle arranged for spraying water over ice in the vault, means for continually draining ice in said vault free of water and for running the ice water from the vault to one end of the trough, and means for taking the water from the other end of the trough for delivery to the intake of said pump, means for introducing cooling water from another source to said trough as desired, and valve means for controlling the flow of said cooling water to said trough and the flow of water to said pump.

2. Wine-cooling apparatus comprising an ice storage vault, a water trough with a plurality of wine-cooling pipes therein, a pump and piping arranged for pumping water over ice in said vault, means for running the ice water from the vault to one end of the trough, means for taking the water from the other end of the trough and delivering it to the intake of said pump for return to said vault, means for introducing cooling water from another source extraneous to said apparatus to said trough as desired, and valve means for controlling the flow of said cooling water to said trough and the flow of water to said pump.

8. Wine cooling apparatus comprising an ice storage vault, a plurality of water troughs arranged side by side, means connecting the troughs in series whereby the water admitted to one end trough must flow in reverse directions in successive troughs respectively, and an overflow for the water at the end of the final trough, means for introducing cooling water from an extraneous source to said troughs for flowing therethrough, wine cooling pipes in said troughs extending through the series in a manner corresponding to the flow of the water in the troughs, a pump and piping arranged for spraying water over ice in the vault, means for running the ice water from the vault for flowing through the series of troughs, and separately valved pipes arranged for returning water selectively from a plurality of said troughs to said pump.

4. Wine cooling apparatus comprising an ice storage vault, a plurality of water troughs arranged side by side, means connecting the troughs in series whereby the water admitted to one end trough must flow in reverse directions in successive troughs respectively, and an overflow for the water at the end of the final trough, separately valved pipes for introducing cooling water from an extraneous source selectively to a plurality of said troughs for flowing therethrough, wine cooling pipes in said troughs extending through the series in a manner corresponding to the flow of the water in the troughs, a pump and piping arranged for spraying water over ice in the vault, means for running the ice water from the vault for flowing through the series of troughs, and separately valved pipes arranged for returning water selectively from a plurality of said troughs to said pump.

WILBUR WORTH WILLIAMSON. 

